


Labyrinth: Hunter AU

by A_Blushing_Mess



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Combat, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, Magic, Riding Crops, Sass, Teasing, magic kink, playful banter, tight leather catsuit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 01:00:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17234450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Blushing_Mess/pseuds/A_Blushing_Mess
Summary: The "Hunter AU" is an alternate universe in which Sarah is a hunter. She's part of an organization that monitors magic and monsters and tries to keep people safe. Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus are all humans, and a part of the organization with her. Sarah's newest assignment is to settle a feud between the fae by taking out a certain snarky Goblin King - and he refuses to go down without a fight.





	1. Prologue

Myths aren’t as ‘mythical’ as people like to think they are. Magic, monsters, and all of the mayhem that comes with them – it’s all real. I know that because it’s the reason I have my particular job. I’m a hunter. I’m one of the special few tasked with patrolling the borders to the “other side” and taking care of those creatures that dare to cross it and come into the regular reality on planet Earth. 

The Pacific Northwest is my turf and heaven help any beast or boogeyman that stumbles into it while I’m around. 

I’ve always had a knack for noticing the paranormal. Mostly because I wanted it to be real so badly when I was a young girl. My eyes were always peeled and I was always on the lookout for gnomes and trolls and fairy godmothers. Luckily, I didn’t have to grow up disappointed. When I was fifteen years old, some goblins tried to steal my little brother, Toby. 

I say “tried” because they didn’t succeed. I heard him crying in his crib upstairs and grabbed a frying pan and beat their little butts right out the upper story window. 

I kept it to myself as much as I could throughout high school and college, but stuff kept coming up. A naga decided to take up residence in my bathtub. Some bitchy harpies chose to roost on the roof of my apartment building. And what was I supposed to do about the night-gaunt that was lurking in the subway tunnels, just let it go along scaring people half to death?

It was like, once magic had touched my life, there was no going back. 

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.


	2. Chapter 1

\-----

 

 

_“Sarah? You almost back with that ghouls’ bile?”_

The static from my headset scraped against my frayed nerves and tried patience.

“Yeah,” I snarled in reply, using the back of my arm to wipe away the sludge that was starting to drip into my eyes, “In the lobby. I’ll be right up.”

_“Good. Hot-foot it now.”_

I grit my teeth to hold back an angry reply as I stomped over to the elevator and climbed inside, nearly punching the button to get to the top floor.

_I have the ghouls’ bile all right… It’s everywhere and I mean everywhere… I’ll tell you where you can stuff it—_

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, sparing me from the continued sight of my hideous reflection – and I knew the metal wasn’t distorting me as much as I would like to think. My hair was ratted and tangled and dripping with goo. My clothes were torn by the grasp of dead, blackened fingernails. My backpack was stuffed full with specimen jars and heavy as a baby dragon. My pants were caked with mud and dirt from the graveyard. And that wasn’t even counting how I smelled…

After walking out of the elevator, I turned the corner and opened the door to the control room. It was dark except for the numerous glowing screens. Some were watching street corners. Some were displaying webpages and video clips. Some were on local news stations of different countries around the globe. Sitting at the huge control panel at the foot of it all was my boss, the guy behind this whole operation.

“Here, Mr. Hoggle,” I grunted, unslinging my massive bag and setting it carefully on the floor. (I wanted to drop it gracelessly to the tile, but if that broke any of the sample jars, I swore to so many gods…)

The little man looked up from the stack of newspapers and tabloids he had been perusing. In contrast with his short stature, he had a big head with a big nose and big ears. His bushy grey eyebrows rose up as his face split into an amused grin.

“Damn, Sarah. You look like you could be a ghoul yourself!” he said, laughing uproariously at my atrocious appearance.

“Har har,” I spat back, rolling my shoulders as my muscles ached. A dripping lock of my hair slid down the side of my face far too close to my mouth, making me brush it back with a snort of disgust.

Still chuckling, Mr. Hoggle hopped off of his chair and opened up my bag, pulling out jar after jar of putrid green slime.

“I can’t say yer the cleanest, but ya get results. Good job, Sarah. This will help us make an antidote to those biting buggers in no time,” he said approvingly, glancing up at me again and trying not to laugh. I could see his red, wrinkled face twitching with the effort.

“Thanks, Hoggle,” I said begrudgingly. There was something about making him happy that was rewarding somehow… that, and I was thinking about how fat my paycheck was going to be. Dealing with the undead didn’t come cheap.

“Now, go get yerself cleaned up. We got another mission for ya.”

“Already?” I asked, my interest perking up even as my muscles groaned in protest.

“Yep. And you’re gonna need somethin’ stealthy,” he replied, heading over to one of the many filing cabinets in the room and rustling through the countless folders.

Even if I didn’t have something else to get ready for, removing my filthy, fetid clothes was more than enough reason to move along. I tiptoed out of the room, trying not to leave nasty footprints as I headed back to the elevator. Once inside, I descended to the basement that held the showers and locker rooms.

My clothes went right into the trash without a second glance.

I wanted to stay in the shower for days, but knowing that another mission was waiting for me was making it harder to procrastinate and take my time under the hot stream of water. I got as much of the sludge out of my hair as I could, but my skin kept crawling like it was still clinging to me in a dripping wet, non-consensual hug.

_Eughg…._

Wondering if I would ever feel truly clean again, I left the steamy enclosure of the shower and dug through my locker for my skintight black cat suit. It didn’t get stealthier than that…or sexier.

Feeling much better about myself than when I had first arrived back at Headquarters, I rode the elevator back up and returned to Hoggle’s control center.

The little man had to clear his throat when I walked in, his already-reddened face growing even redder with a blush that he tried to hide by looking busy with his files and papers.

Stifling my smirk, I sat back in a chair and went about braiding my dark hair so that it stayed out of the way this time.

“Er, so…” Hoggle began, clearing his throat again as he read over a ritzy-looking scroll, “we got a fae feud to settle. Some bloke wants a kingdom, so he done hired us to kill the king.”

“A fae king? Really? Where’s he at?”

“Seems he rules the Underground. The whole of the Goblin Kingdom anyway.”

“Whoa. Big fish. What’s his name?” I asked, my green eyes wide with curiosity.

“King Jareth, the first of his line, king of the goblins and keeper of the unwanted” read Hoggle, his nose sniffing with disgust.

The high and mighty weren’t exactly his favorite kind of people. I bit back a snicker.

“Yep. Says here he takes kids who been wished away. He’s got a labyrinth and everything.”

“Hmm… Sounds like quite the mission,” I murmured, loving the way my blood was pulsing faster with excitement…and nervousness. The fae were a tricky bunch, but imagine what kind of reward could come out of taking down a villainous king…

“It is. So don’t screw it up,” Hoggle responded, his gravelly voice sharpening as he gave me a serious glare and a point of one of his knobby old fingers.

“Have I ever disappointed you before?” I asked sweetly, swallowing the more-biting of my responses and going for the low blow.

Hoggle’s frown deepened, his bushy brows lowering over his blue eyes.

“…No…” he admitted reluctantly, rolling up the scroll and putting it on his desk like it needed all of his attention to do so, “Now go down to see Ludo. He’s got some stuff for ya.”

I smiled and headed off to do as I was told. The sooner I completed the assassination contract, the sooner I got paid. And the sooner the world was rid of a glamorized baby-napper.

The weapons storage room was a floor below the control room. It had all sorts of stuff, from all periods of time. We had maces and chainmail as well as crossbows and bazookas. Some creatures evolved with the times and others didn’t, so it was hard to tell what you would need until you knew what you were up against. I walked in to the sound of harsh, metallic hammering and then an angry hiss as Ludo plunged the white-hot bit of metal he was forging into water to cool it.

Ludo was a big guy. It was almost comical, how much bigger he was than Hoggle, and yet Hoggle was the boss and Ludo was our weapon specialist. His skin was a warm, bronze color all year round, no need for a suntan. He had the muscle structure of an angry gorilla and the temperament of an old cat that just wanted to snuggle. A mop of unruly red hair hung down from the top of his head, and his beard was almost long enough to interfere with his work so that he had to clip it back out of the way sometimes.

He wore a sleeveless white shirt and protective overalls, letting the plentiful hair on his arms glimmer like threads of copper as it caught the light from the nearby forge. He must’ve heard me come in, for he wheeled his massive head around to give me a gentle smile.

“Sarah,” he rumbled in greeting, making me smile in return.

“Hey, Ludo. How are you tonight?” I asked, grinning at him as I approached. My brain was buzzing with possibilities as to what weapon I would need for the upcoming mission. I knew the fae and iron didn’t mix, but what else was there? Magical monsters were always ten times more interesting and challenging than the non-magical variety.

Ludo nodded without speaking – he was a man of few words – and turned to the table next to him. He then gestured for me to look with a big, welcoming sweep of his arm.

Before me, there was a pistol with a hip holster and iron bullets. There was a length of rope tipped with a sharp, shiny grappling hook. There was a pair of night-vision goggles and a Rowan wand, to destroy the magic glamor that surrounded the fae and their kin. And there was also a small, red velvet pouch on a string.

“What’s this?” I asked Ludo, lifting the pouch and positioning my fingers to go about opening it.

But Ludo’s massive hand closed firmly yet gently around both of mine, pouch and all.

“Don’t open it,” he warned in his deep honey voice, looking at me squarely with his big brown eyes, “Not safe.”

When I nodded, he brought his other hand around and took the pouch from me, the tiny thing looking so delicate and breakable in his heavy, paw-like grasp. He then parted the string and hung the pouch around my neck, so that the little bundle rested just below my collarbones, against my sternum.

“Makes fae blind to you,” Ludo explained, putting his hands over his eyes and then pulling them away to illustrate his point.

“Got it,” I said, grinning again at how he spoke to me like a child playing “peek-a-boo” even though I was almost 25 years old now. I basically was a child compared to him.

He went back to the forge as I packed up my gear, loading up a small black bag and shouldering it. I attached the gun at my hip and pushed the goggles high up on my forehead, ready if I needed them. And the mysterious pouch was there around my neck, where it belonged. It was certainly nagging me as to its contents, but I knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

As I thanked Ludo and went to exit the weapons storage room, I almost bumped into my fellow hunter, Sir Didymus. (The “sir” was for real – he had been knighted by the English crown for his service against the vampire epidemic more than a decade ago.)

“Oh, apologies, my lady!” he said quickly, bowing his head and lifting his navy blue cap in sincerity.

“It’s fine, Didymus. Don’t worry about it,” I replied, grinning at how sweet and proper he was.

He was an older gentleman, with wizened skin and a curly white mustache and a rather thin physique. But I knew not to underestimate him. Anyone who thought he was slow and doddering was in for a nasty surprise. I’d seen him lop off the tail of a manticore, grab the severed, poison-barbed end while still in the air, and drive it back into the same creature’s skull to kill it as he hit the ground.

He preferred bladed weapons and hand-to-hand combat, being old fashioned as he was. He always had a rant on hand about the “good old days,” sighing in wistful disappointment when Hoggle would procure a heat-seeking missile for us. Still, his aim with a sniper rifle was unmatched, more than worthy of military specialization. Despite his age, his hands didn’t shake, and he could shoot the head off a gremlin at a hundred yards even though he only had one eye.

With said eye – his iris being amber in color – he looked me over sharply, frowning as he saw the gun at my hip.

“Where art thou headed this cold evening?”

“To kill some fae king who steals children,” I answered, jumping a bit with surprise when Didymus gasped loudly at my words.

“Oh, how dastardly! The poor youths,” he lamented with horror and pity, “And thou hast iron bullets to dispatch him, yes?”

“Yep. Should do nicely.”

“My lady, I beseech thee: take this,” Didymus crooned with the utmost sincerity, reaching into his belt and handing me the black hilt of his favorite sword. It was his favorite because the blade was collapsible and shot out like an umbrella when one pressed the button near the pommel. It was iron-forged by Ludo himself and sharp as could be.

“Oh, Didymus, I can’t—” I started to protest, but he held up a steady, patient hand to shush me.

“Please, my lady. It is a most trustworthy blade. It will serve you well should your gun misfire. Take no such chances when one’s foe is swift and cunning as the fae,” Didymus said pleadingly, his amber eye glistening with worry as he stared at me.

“…Oh, okay. Thank you, Didymus,” I said gratefully, taking the sword and holstering it at my hip near the gun. I didn’t want to be responsible for losing or breaking his favorite weapon, but he was so persuasive – and it was comforting to have such a boon when I was going against a fae king all on my own.

“Godspeed, my lady,” he replied with a proud smile, bowing his head and lifting his cap again in farewell.

I bowed my head in thanks, smiling because it was almost overwhelmingly nice to have such a sweet, golden-hearted man have so much confidence in me.

With that, we parted ways. Didymus went into the weapons storage room, probably to have Ludo repair one of his many swords. I went back up to the control room to see Hoggle one more time.

 

 

\-----


	3. Chapter 2

\---

 

“So, how am I supposed to get to the Underground, anyway?” I asked as I entered and took my same seat from earlier.

Hoggle was barely visible among the piles of papers and files around him.

“Hang on, Sarah. Almost got it,” he said to me, his brows furrowing as he held the paper closer to his face to read it as precisely as possible. I tapped my booted foot on the ground, humming some old song from a music box that I used to have when I was a child.

“Ah, here it is!” Hoggle shouted soon after, hopping up and crawling out of his fortress of papers only to stumble over to an old bookcase and scan the spines with his nose only an inch or two away from them. It wasn’t long at all until he grabbed one with his stubby fingers and pulled it out to grin at the cover. Then he turned and held it out to me.

I took it, looking at the simple red cover with some gold lettering on the front and around the edges.

“ _Labyrinth?_ ” I asked, seeking clarification.

“Yep. Read the bit on page nine,” Hoggle said, grinning rather suspiciously like he wasn’t telling me something.

I flipped through for the page, keeping one eye on Hoggle as he returned to his seat at the control panel and watched me with that same unsettling look on his face.

“Why?” I asked, unable to quell my suspicion.

“Just do it,” he said gruffly, waving his hand at me impatiently.

When I found page 9, I scanned for whatever spiel he wanted me to read. It was in quotations and separated from the main text, so it wasn’t hard to find.

“ _’I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now?’_ ” I said aloud, the words feeling kind of funny in my mouth.

I looked up to ask if that was the passage Hoggle had been referring to, but I was no longer in his office.

Gasping with surprise, I lurched back and almost fell off of the rock I was now sitting on all of a sudden.

I was outside, under a starry night sky, at the base of a big, sandy hill. There was an open courtyard in front of me – and also the massive doors to the Labyrinth. They were huge and wooden, set into a wall of stone that stretched as far as I could see in either direction. In the distance, above the maze, I could see the angular bulk of what I assumed was the Goblin Castle. Its dark silhouette was foreboding, with windows and doorways lit with orange radiance.

That was my destination. A nervous chill flickered down the back of my neck. But I swallowed and squared my shoulders.

I’d been working with Hoggle and the others for almost five years now. I was still a newbie compared to them – the “new girl” who had been there for the shortest length of time and deserved to be teased for it – but I was good at what I did and I knew my stuff. I could do this.

“Well…come on, feet,” I muttered to myself as I stood and began my journey to kill the Goblin King. Pulling my night-vision goggles down over my eyes, I could take in my surroundings much more clearly.

I saw strange vegetation and flowers lining the outside of the Labyrinth. Around them were many flitting fairies, glowing green in the view of my goggles. They were small and beautiful, their wings gossamer and delicate. A younger me might’ve tried to touch one or say hello, but I knew better now. I was sure to avoid those biting bastards at all costs. Instead, I pulled on my gloves and unwound the rope a bit so that my grappling hook had some slack that I could swing it by.

It latched onto the top of the wall and held firm. I climbed up there and crouched down, looking at the sea of stone before me. There were so many walls and corners. It went on for miles. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t daunting… Still, Sarah Williams never backs down from a challenge.

I checked once more to make sure my magic pouch was there. It was. I tucked it into the collar of my body suit for now, to keep it safe.

If what Ludo told me was true – and he didn’t have a lying bone in his body – then I was invisible to the fae who ruled this Labyrinth. That would make traversing it much easier if he couldn’t watch me through his scrying crystals or whatever. I had the element of surprise, and what a valuable element it was. I would be sure not to waste it.

The distance between the wall I was crouching on and the opposite wall wasn’t that far. I had to jump so that, for a split second, there was nothing beneath my feet, but I made it. As long as I was careful and looked before I leapt, the process of wall jumping proved very effective indeed. I couldn’t help but snicker as I noticed yards and yards of twisting corridors suddenly become useless.

I hadn’t gone far when it became obvious that the Labyrinth wasn’t empty.

At the flicker of movement, I immediately dropped down onto my stomach atop the wall and held perfectly still.

A very old man draped in rags shuffled by below, his pace bordering on annoying with how slow it was. I also heard the animated chatter of…his hat? It was a long-necked bird thing and it was talking incessantly about this, that, and the other thing. I didn’t bother to follow the one-sided conversation. The odd pair took their sweet time getting out of sight, but once they had, I returned to my task of wall hopping.

Continuing on toward the castle, I overheard some snippets from two door guardians. Wait, make that four...perhaps. It looked to be two heads behind each shield, two upright and two upside down, the four of them chattering away about the difference between truth and lies. I left their snickering laughter behind, making a note to tell Didymus about them later, seeing as they had mustaches just like his.

Soon, the high stone walls lessened in frequency and a green hedge maze took over. I couldn’t walk on top of that with quite the same ease, but I still had fun sneaking around past the armored goblins that made up the nightly patrol.

This fae king had some shoddy security. He must’ve really relied on his knowledge and awareness of the invader to defeat his enemies. Judging by visual distance, I was already almost halfway through the Labyrinth.

_Piece of cake._

I chatted with some feisty doorknockers. I trekked through a forest with some energetic fiery-furred creatures that I kept a safe distance from. There was a horrible smell nearby, but I wasn’t interested in figuring out what was the cause of that. Then the forest thinned, and a barren plain stretched out before me, scattered with giant mounds of manmade junk.

_Huh… Weird._

As I moved through the mountains of random objects, I heard the snores of sleeping goblins. Perhaps they lived out here? I was curious, but obviously my mission was more pressing and important. It wasn’t long at all until I found myself standing before the outer wall of the Goblin City. There was a guard at the door, but he was snoring loudly and peacefully beneath the archway.

I used my grappling hook to climb up the wall, scrambling over the parapet and staring down into the city below. It was a sea of ramshackle houses of different shapes and sizes. They looked like they could fall over if a strong wind came by. Everything was mostly dark, but I could see lights in some of the windows. After climbing down the wall to the ground, I kept my head down and moved fast, slipping through those roughly-made streets like a proper assassin should.

Around the corner, through the town square with the fountain, and then I was at the steps to the Goblin Castle.

I was tempted to let out an appreciative whistle, seeing as the building was really rather impressive up close. But obviously keeping my presence here a secret for as long as possible was priority number one. I took out my trusty grappling hook once more and climbed up onto the terrace high above me. That put me at an optimum position to reach one of the windows in the turret to my left. It took me a few tries to get that one right, but luckily, no one was awake to watch me mess up.

And with that, I was in.

Feeling the rush of being so close to my intended target, I started grinning as I made my way carefully down the winding stone staircase. It was pretty monotonous and uneventful except for the fact that I almost tripped over a random black chicken that was sitting near the bottom step.

Emerging from the stairwell, I found myself standing on some sort of observation deck. It went in a ring around the inner part of the ceiling of this room and a light was shining brightly a ways below. I looked over the railing and took off my night-vision goggles and smiled as I saw the throne room beneath me.

And right there, sitting in his throne with his legs kicked up over the armrest, was the Goblin King, Jareth.

I’d never seen him before, but I just knew that it was him. It was like, no one else could’ve possibly been him. It felt downright obvious to me as I gazed at him.

_Target sighted._

I couldn’t say the guy didn’t look dangerous – maybe just not in the most conventional way. He wasn’t particularly big or bulky. His physique seemed tight and streamlined. I could tell even from up here that he was tall. His clothes were old-fashioned: a loose white tunic, tight black trousers, knee-high black boots, and black gloves. There was a burst of wild blonde hair on his head.

I couldn’t see his face because his head was lowered. He seemed to be reading a book and absent-mindedly tapping some sort of black cane on the steps of his throne.

With my target in sight, I made my way quietly around the entirety of the observation deck that I was standing on. I surveyed the throne room, noting the circular pit in the center of the room and reminding myself not to fall into it. It was also brought to my attention that there were two goblin guards posted at the passageways to and from the throne room. I couldn’t see where those passages led off to, and those guards could prove problematic.

The fae king would be enough of a problem on his own, if I knew anything at all about trying to take down one of their kind.

I contemplated shooting him from here. He wasn’t a moving target, after all. But the distance was a bit unnerving, and he would immediately know I was here if I missed. Also, something felt kind of cheap about that option. Being a king and all, certainly he deserved a proper, face-to-face assassination out of respect for his lineage?

Something like that.

Standing up above him and watching him reading his book… it just didn’t feel right. Shooting him like this. It just wasn’t the way it was done.

No, I had something else in mind.

Moving to a new spot on the observation deck, I was as close as possible to being positioned above and behind the throne. Then I drew out my grappling hook and slowly lowered myself down into the room from the ceiling. Gritting my teeth to keep from grunting with the effort of being so rigid and quiet, I strained to be careful and prayed to be unnoticed.

The guards were looking the other ways, down their respective passages instead of at their king.

Using mostly the strength in my arms, I managed to lower myself far enough that I could reach out for the wall in front of me. Then I used the uneven quality of the brickwork to serve as footholds and handholds. That proved much easier than using my physical strength alone in open air, and it wasn’t long at all before I set my feet down onto the floor of the throne room with a nearly silent tap.

I paused, glancing over my shoulder as the Goblin King looked up from his book. He heard me, but I knew as he did a quick survey of the room that he couldn’t see me.

The talisman around my neck was working so well. I was inordinately pleased. About the magic pouch as well as about his face, which I could finally see clearly. The sharp nose, the prominent cheekbones, the defined angles of his jaw. His lips were painted so that they sparkled and his eyes were the bluest of blues, like crystalline ice.

 _Hot damn._ I actually had to swallow to prevent myself from drooling.

As I shook off the hormones and began to slowly move closer to him, he blinked dismissively and began to return his attention to his book – but then his gaze flickered once again over the back of his throne and I knew with a wash of anxiety that he saw the rope I had climbed down with. I heard his black cane clatter as it hit the floor.

Acting fast, I pulled my gun from its holster and pressed the snout of it to his left temple.

He froze, his hair seeming to bristle in response to the cold metal against his skin.

Keeping my hand steady, I leaned in close to him and whispered very softly in his ear.

“Don’t move. Dismiss your guards.”

I could see the smooth fluctuation in his throat as he swallowed, his lips parting as a voice like black velvet came out and caressed my unworthy ears.

“Griswald. You and your troupe are dismissed. Go monitor the outer wall,” he said evenly, without any hint of tension. He even lowered his gaze, as if he were still reading his book. The order was smooth, filled with unquestionable authority, and the goblins guarding the passages at either end of the throne room nodded to him and marched off like they were told.

I was quite impressed, but I kept that to myself as I waited for the sound of the goblins’ footprints to recede into silence.

When I was sure I was alone with the Goblin King, I drew my gun away from his head and stood up straight behind his throne, drawing back from him with one smooth step.

In response, he immediately leapt to his feet, tossing his book aside and looking sharply around the room, trying to find me.

“What is this? Who’s there?” he demanded, those icy blue eyes penetrating as he searched his surroundings. It was then that I noticed his pupils were different sizes. The right was an appropriate radius for the current lighting scenario, but the left one was much too large, like it were searching through a field on a moonlit night.

“Aw, you can’t see me?” I replied tauntingly. Those gorgeous eyes and he was still blind to me. I couldn’t get over how giddy that made me feel for some reason.

Jareth’s ornately angled eyebrows lowered over his eyes, his face clearly displaying how much he didn’t approve of my patronizing behavior.

“No,” he admitted reluctantly, still looking around the room from where he stood in front of his throne. He wasn’t changing his position more than necessary, but I could see in his body language that he was coiled up like a spring, ready to launch.

“That’s too bad,” I said condescendingly, tiptoeing out toward the center of the room so I would have plenty of space to make my next move, “I can see you without a problem.”

“Who are you?”

“My name’s Sarah, your majesty,” I replied with a teasing grin, using my thumb to cock the barrel of my pistol with an audible clicking noise.

“…What are you doing here, Sarah?” the king continued, his eyes gazing in my general direction, as if he were using the sound of my voice as an indicator of my current location.

“I’ve been hired to kill you.”

“By whom?”

“Another lord of the fae. He fancies your kingdom.”

Jareth sneered, baring his teeth threateningly. His canines were a lot sharper than they needed to be.

“…Byron,” he murmured, almost spitting out the name with disgust and contempt.

“Hey, it doesn’t really make a difference to me,” I said flippantly, drawing the hilt of Didymus’ sword from my belt with my other hand, “Or you, really. You’re gonna die tonight, so…”

“…My, you sound confident,” Jareth observed curiously, his eyes always searching for me, his ears straining to pick up something that would tell him where I was.

His attention made me snicker a little with self-satisfaction.

“I feel like I have the right to be. I mean, you can’t even see me after all,” I said, slowly making my way to the left, to test him and see if he would notice. Know your enemy, as they say…

It looked like a grin was tugging at Jareth’s lips. His posture had changed a little, his arms folding gracefully over his chest.

“I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe that’s enough of an advantage to defeat me.”

His gloating words were fuel for my inner fire. Sarah Williams never backs down from a challenge.

“Now who’s confident?”

“I feel like I have the right to be. I am a king after all,” he replied, throwing my own words from earlier right back in my face.

_What a snarky bastard._

“Some king,” I scoffed, moving a bit toward the right now, “Can’t even see who has invaded his kingdom right under his nose.”

With that, Jareth’s smile disappeared and was replaced with another regal glower in my general direction.

“…I feel compelled to mention that when I catch you, and I will, you will not enjoy what I plan to do to you for your blatant disrespect.”

Despite my best efforts, a cold thrill went through me at his warning. His voice was so deep and melodious and my mind was having an unfortunate heyday with the thought of what he planned to do to me – in a completely different and inappropriate context, of course.

_Come on, Sarah! Get it together! Focus!_

“Oh, now I’m all scared,” I snapped back in an overly theatrical whimper.

“You should be,” he said ominously, lifting his right hand and uncurling his fingers to reveal the translucent crystal sphere resting in his palm. As I watched, that one crystal began to levitate and move through the air, and as it moved, it was like when a mouse cursor drags and leaves other versions of itself behind. There were suddenly many crystal spheres, encircling him in a defensive ring that was constantly rotating and fluctuating.

…Well, this is new… I thought to myself, pressing the button on the black hilt that I held and allowing the sword to fully extend with a musical, metallic ‘shing’ sound.

Jareth heard me draw my weapon, his head snapping over to the left so that he was facing me again.

Goddamn, his hearing was excellent.

But it didn’t matter. Because hearing can’t help you dodge a bullet.

I lifted my gun and took aim at his head. Then I pulled the trigger.

 

 

\---


	4. Chapter 3

\---

 

With a harsh booming noise, my weapon fired – but instead of a blooming cloud of blood coming out of his head, there was a blooming cloud of glass shards from the ruptured crystal that blocked my shot.

I only had time to gasp with surprise, when all of a sudden Jareth extended his palm toward me and one of the remaining crystals came rushing at me like a 98-mile-an-hour baseball. I managed to duck just in time, the glass orb shattering against the wall behind me instead of shattering into the front of my skull.

I growled as I stood up again, taking some quick and silent steps to the opposite side of the room in an effort to muddy the water as to where I was currently located.

“Iron bullets. You came prepared. But you’re predictable,” Jareth said with unmistakable superiority, “Obviously a headshot would end this conflict as quickly as possible, and is the choice of one who is out of their league and looking for an escape.”

Gritting my teeth with indignation and rage, I bit back my snarky comment, seeing as my talking was giving away my position… but then again, I was enough of a real-life example as to how a quick temper made you stupid in a fight. Maybe exposing my approximate location was still worth it to make him lose his cool?

“You don’t look much like a baby-napper,” I said, crouching lower to the ground with my face angled to the side in an attempt to throw my voice off the walls, “I expected more like, crooked back, suspicious sack over your shoulder, that kindda thing.”

“I do not ‘nap’ babies,” Jareth replied indignantly, as if the very idea was insulting, “On occasion, children and infants are wished away to me by an acquaintance. And I always give said acquaintance an opportunity to win back the person they have wished away, by running the Labyrinth.”

He was looking in my general direction still, but his gaze was off to the side and too high. The crystals were circling around his head and torso, as if he couldn’t figure out exactly which part of his body to guard. Perhaps my plan was working?

“I mean, I came through at night, so it wasn’t that bad. But in daylight, with all the monsters awake? That doesn’t seem very fair,” I continued, trying to aim for one of his kneecaps. But the crystal balls were circling him like the red and green shells in _Mario Kart_. I couldn’t get a clear shot.

“What is your basis for comparison, may I ask?”

“Basic human decency?”

The Goblin King threw back his head and laughed, the sound as musical as it was maniacal. He began to walk toward my right, becoming a moving target on top of his surrounding crystal interference. His movements were so lithe and graceful, like a predatory dance.

“Not in my repertoire, I’m afraid,” he said with another toothy grin, tilting his head to the side as if he were listening for my response.

“You could have fooled me,” I replied, heavy on the sarcasm. But I also fired my gun right after that, hoping it would be surprising. My bullet glanced off of one of those damned crystals again and blew it to smithereens.

It was obvious that Jareth hadn’t been one hundred percent ready for that shot, judging by how he leapt backward with widened eyes and covered his face against the razor-sharp shards of glass, but the fact remained that I had missed hitting him once again.

He was a lot faster on his feet than I thought he would be.

Jareth glared, his blue eyes cold with fury. But it was obvious he didn’t quite know where the shot had come from, because he didn’t return fire right away like before.

Then his brows rose and it was like something occurred to him.

He extended his hand in a sweeping gesture, forming a row of new crystals in the air before him – and immediately sending those crystals hurtling at the ground so that they shattered to pieces, tiny glittering pieces that skittered all over across the floor.

At first I frowned with a lack of understanding. However, when I shifted my foot and accidentally brushed some of the glass shards to the side and Jareth’s head snapped around to zero in on me like I was a mouse and he was an owl, it made a terrible amount of sense.

I yelped and dove to the side again, cutting up my knuckles in my efforts to scramble away across the floor as he slammed two more crystal orbs into the wall where I had been standing mere moments before.

The glass-littered floor was like a minefield, and his sharp fae ears were waiting for any little clinking sound to give away my location.

_Shit. This is not going how I planned at all._

I knew that continuing to move was probably my best bet, as long as I moved carefully. So, I crept closer toward his left, tiptoeing through the littered shards of glass as gently as I could. I was almost holding my breath, hoping that he couldn’t hear my heart pounding in my chest.

“What’s the matter, minx?” Jareth purred teasingly, his head lolling to the other side as he continued to listen for any sign of my whereabouts, “I’ve come to enjoy your little quips. Surely you won’t deprive me of your lovely voice for too long?”

I had managed to get within five feet of him without making a huge mess of things, but now what?

Bracing myself for whatever was to happen next, I raised my gun and fired three shots in rapid succession. The first went through the slackened sleeve of Jareth’s tunic, missing his arm by centimeters. And that must’ve been enough of an indication as to my direction, because he blocked the next two shots with crystals.

 _Dammit!_ I thought, flinching as glass shards bit at my scalp and face. But I continued forward, lifting my sword and thrusting it at him, right at his gut.

His blue eyes were wide, tracking my movements with something like wonder instead of fear.

And then, before I knew what was happening, he had vanished in a glittering cloud of magic and I was narrowly avoiding falling flat on my face as my target disappeared in an instant.

“What?!” I gasped, breathing heavily as I turned around. Now it was my turn to look wildly about the room for a foe I couldn’t see. But it didn’t take long before I found him, sitting in his throne with a wolfish smile on his face.

“It seems you carry something with you tonight. It renders you invisible to me…but not immaterial.”

His words confused me for a moment, until I glanced down at myself.

I was covered in glitter. My head, my shoulders, my arms, and my chest – I was basically outlined in it.

My blood ran a few degrees colder.

That’s exactly what he meant. He couldn’t see me, but I was still solid. The introduction of a new substance on my person remained visible. The glass shards and glitter were exposing me to him like the way water droplets expose a spider’s web.

I panicked and tried to brush off the sparkling covering from my person, but I wasn’t given any more time to try as another crystal came hurtling toward my face.

Narrowly avoiding it, I went to lift my gun – but again, my disguise was ruined. Jareth obviously watched me raise my arm and hurled another crystal to combat my shot. I blocked it with my sword, sending it ricocheting off out a nearby window.

_Shit. Shit. Shit._

I only had two bullets left, and I tried to use them wisely. But Jareth intercepted them with ease, able to perceive the movement of my arm and predict my aim.

I glared and threw the useless gun aside, taking up my sword in both hands and changing my stance accordingly.

The Goblin King chuckled darkly at me, making a curling gesture with one of his gloved fingers so that an array of glass shards rose off of the floor in a phalanx before him, awaiting his command.

Then he snapped his fingers, and the razor-edged bits of crystal launched at me.

I dropped swiftly to the ground, managing to avoid the volley of jagged arrows. They did not cut into my skin. No, they cut something far worse. As I collapsed to avoid being skewered, the pouch around my neck lifted with that slight delay that came with my change in momentum. And one of the glass shards sliced right through the rope that held it around my neck.

Things felt like they were moving in a chilling, morbid slow-motion. I gasped and fumbled for the little red pouch, missing as it bounced off of my chest and onto the floor.

Before I could make another grab for it, Jareth was standing in front of me. He extended his palm toward me and spread his fingers – and I found myself flying back through the air and slamming into the cold, stone wall. Crying out at the pain as searing points of light burst behind my eyes, I snarled and tried to respond with an attack of my own. My sword was still grasped tight in my fist, but I couldn’t move. It was like I was cemented to the spot, my arms and legs stretched out and rigid.

My breathing quickened in response to my panic – that basic animal fear that came with being restrained somehow. I fought and struggled, my muscles aching with the strain, but it was no use. Gasping weakly for breath, I looked up with a glare as the Goblin King stooped to inspect my talisman.

He didn’t touch it, even with gloves on. Instead, he brought it up to his face by levitating it in his freehand, twisting it and turning it under his icy blue gaze.

And then, with a flick of his fingers, it was gone. Lost in another glittering cloud of magic.

“What did you do with my necklace?” I snarled, hoping I could overcome my fear with anger.

“It’s in an oubliette,” Jareth said matter-of-factly, almost managing to keep the relief out of his tone, “There are many throughout the Labyrinth, so I doubt you will ever find it again. Not that I plan on giving you the opportunity to look.”

“Bastard.”

“Now, now. I would hold my tongue if I were in your…position,” he said with a wicked glint in his eyes, leaning far too close to me so that the strands of his silky blonde hair tickled the sweat-slick skin of my forehead. My breath caught in my throat, my eyes widening with anxious surprise.

I could honestly say that this was pretty far down on my list of expectations for the night, and yet there we were.

He smelled like the air after a thunderstorm – that kind of sweet surrender, wet and hard-won and exhausting.

My head was starting to swim, probably from blunt-force-trauma as well as a potent cocktail of supernaturally-spiked hormones. His glamour magic had to be wreaking havoc on my mental state, but I couldn’t quite muster the effort to fight it.

“What a _grand position_ it is, too,” Jareth continued with obvious enjoyment, moving back just enough to let his eyes roam across my entire body, “I must say, I appraise your choice of clothing. Did you have a night of passion in mind when you chose it?”

“I figured I should wear something dark so your bloodstains aren’t too obvious,” I snapped back, trying to ignore the way my face flushed with warmth at his words.

“How considerate of you, Sarah,” he said politely, returning his eyes to mine and sending a little thrill through my system, “Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like you’re going to have access to my blood anytime soon… My access to you, however, seems rather unlimited at this point.”

The combination of his lascivious grin and his warm, wicked words was quite unsettling to me. I couldn’t help but swallow unevenly, cliché as it was, and that only made his smile widen more.

Then, as if he had all the time in the world, he reached up and took a hold of my zipper at the base of my throat and drew it, slow and savoring, all the way down to my navel.

The noise of my bodysuit opening seemed so loud – like it scraped against the surface of my brain.

A stuttering breath shot through my teeth, my whole body trembling violently against the wall. My muscles fought hard against his restraining magic, but to no avail.

_Holy shit—This is not happening—_

The touch of the cold air on my uncovered skin brought forth goose bumps on my chest and stomach. But it didn’t matter because my body felt so hot – my heart was pounding like a drum in my chest. My blood was surging through my veins, heating my face, and spending far too much time below my waist.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I wasn’t as repelled by this whole situation as I probably should’ve been.

Trying to regain what little composure I could, I pressed my lips together and tried to fix the Goblin King with a look of cold indifference.

His mismatched gaze was focused on the plunging, v-shaped divot of my freshly-bared skin. The blush in my cheeks got even hotter at the hunger in his eyes. And when he reached out with his gloved hand and ran one soft, leather-clad finger down the middle of my stomach, I couldn’t hold back the whimper that slipped from my mouth.

“…Oh, you _pretty thing_ …” he murmured huskily, still staring at me, “It’s a shame you’ve gone and made yourself my enemy.”

There was some sort of threat in his words, but I couldn’t tell what kind it was.

“…How do enemies get treated in your kingdom?” I asked nervously, trying to keep my voice even. Surely a castle as old-fashioned as this one had dungeons for me to rot in, chains to slice open my wrists but never allow me to fall to the ground at last, defeated.

Jareth looked up at me through the obscuring fringe of his hair, his lips curling into a devilish smirk.

“Well, if they had your eyes and your lips and your curves…” he began, a heated desire dripping off of every word. Then he glanced back over his shoulder and did some little gesture with his fingers, and the black cane he had been tapping before I gave away my presence in his throne room rose off of the floor, where it had been discarded, and flew across the room so that it was gripped tightly in his fist.

Now that it was closer, I realized that it wasn’t a cane like I had first thought.

It was a freaking riding crop.

_You’ve gotta be kidding me._

Jareth turned back to me, leaning in close again with one arm braced beside my head so that I could feel his cool breath on the feverish skin of my neck.

“…An enemy like you, dearest Sarah…I would treat with physical force… Roughly…repeatedly…without mercy.”

As he listed off those tantalizing adjectives, he punctuated each one with a firm slap of the end of the riding crop against the bare skin of my stomach, making me gasp every time. The muscles in my abdomen quivered with arousal in response and the throbbing sensation between my legs grew even more pronounced.

_Sweet Jesus – Hoggle didn’t warn me about this – that I was going head-to-head with the god of sexual desires personified! I mean, hell—Some head’s up would’ve been nice!_

It was almost funny – I bit my lower lip and tilted my head back, fighting against a bout of hysterical laughter. The tension building inside of me was growing damn near unbearable, and I didn’t know how to ease it.

Jareth took my face in his hand, his leather-clad thumb pressing lightly on my chin so that I lowered my head back down, meeting his gaze dizzily. When he knew he had my attention once again, his thumb reached up and slid along my lower lip, his eyes watching mine as my gaze blurred with pleasure.

“I feel like I should thank Byron for sending such a lovely assassin after my head. The one I send after him won’t be nearly as attractive as you are,” he murmured, leaning in closer as if he were going to kiss me.

The thought made my heart hiccup in my chest.

“Hurry up and kill me!” I drawled impatiently as I turned my face away and rolled my eyes, trying to act bored with his antics instead of erotically enthralled, “I’m gonna have a busy afterlife of haunting you and making your life a living hell.”

Jareth chuckled with dark amusement at my words.

“To be perfectly honest, I would much rather ravish you than kill you.”

That hysterical laugh from earlier finally welled up out of me, breathless and weak.

“Whoa there,” I stuttered with a wild grin, “That’s not the service I plan to get paid for tonight.”

It was a bad joke, but it still made me laugh.

“Ah, yes,” Jareth said introspectively, strolling away from me with his riding crop slung back over his shoulder, “You’re here to kill me based on the greed of another fae.”

“Well, you whisk children away, too.”

“Only those who are unwanted to begin with,” he replied, gesturing admonishingly at me with the riding crop as he continued strutting about, “so that they may have a life of whimsy and freedom here instead. Surely that is not such a cruel fate…?”

“…Well, I guess,” I conceded reluctantly. My moral compass was kind of doing barrel roles at the moment, anyway.

“So, which one of us is really being unfair?” The question came over his shoulder, his face hidden by his hair.

“…Damn…”

“Damn indeed. So where does that leave us?”

“You could… let me go,” I suggested carefully, “And I’ll just be on my way. Contract null and void.”

“Perhaps…” Jareth replied, completing his lazy, waltzing circuit and strolling back to stand before me, “though I am much more interested in a scenario where you stay the night.”

“Yeah, right, that sounds safe,” I said with a snort of disbelief.

“If you have decided not to kill me, perhaps I can return the favor.”

“How generous of you.”

My sardonic remark made him grin again.

“To prove my virtue, how about I do you a good turn?” he asked, his face politely attentive, his voice as tempting as sin itself, “I’m going to release you. I’m very interested in getting to know you better, Sarah. Given your permission, of course.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” I asked, seeing as bargaining with Jareth gave me the same vibe as talking to a used car salesman. Like making deals was his specialty.

Those crystal blue eyes glanced over at the blade still clutched in my hand before returning to my face.

“You came here armed with iron against me, so I assume you’re informed on the qualities of my being. Surely you know that the fae cannot lie?”

“…Yeah.”

“So why would you distrust the words of a fae king?”

“Well, the fae are sneaky too.”

“That is true,” he sighed with a graceful shrug, leaning in close with his arm resting beside my head again, “…but still. I tell you honestly that you will not be harmed by my hands…”

I hadn’t even begun to decide if he was serious or not, when he was suddenly leaning against the wall the rest of the way, his body pressing firmly against the side of mine in the blink of an eye.

“However, _my_ _riding crop is a different story_ ,” he whispered in my ear, twirling the crop through his fingers while he spoke and then flicking his wrist upward so that the end of it slapped me right between my legs.

A jagged gasp burst from my lips in response to the explosion of sensation that released in me. My legs quivered against the wall, the muscles in my thighs jumping spastically. My eyes were widened to the point where they started to water.

As if that wasn’t enough, he kept up the pressure applied to me, the crop bending into a curve with the strain. I couldn’t help but moan, and only then did he relent.

“ _See? Honesty_ ,” Jareth murmured, his voice saturated with wicked satisfaction.

I wanted to spit something back at him, but I didn’t have the breath. My brain was soaked in glitter and hormones. My heart was beating in my throat and my face was flushed, hot and red as a bonfire. And I wasn’t given any time to recover.

“Will you, in turn, be honest with me, Sarah?” the Goblin King asked persuasively, tossing the riding crop away and moving so that his body aligned with mine in all the right places, his hands braced against the wall on either side of my head.

“Uh…” I managed.

“Will you tell me what it is you want tonight?”

I pressed my lips together, worried about what I might say…or how I might say it.

“Is it my blood on your hands…or my hands on your flesh? Have you felt the touch of a fae before?” he asked, his voice filled with heat and promise.

“…No…”

“Well then,” he said with dark anticipation, lifting his index finger and pressing it to my lips, “Bite down for me. Don’t be shy…”

That line must’ve crawled from the deepest and hottest of my midnight fantasies because it made my mouth water. I had to stop myself from groaning, for crying out loud.

Blushing up a storm, I opened my mouth and bit down on the tip of his finger. I considered doing it as hard as I could, but I wasn’t feeling that daring at the moment, in my current position. Instead I did it just hard enough to feel the firmness of his finger, and hold the glove still.

Keeping his eyes on mine, he then drew his hand smoothly out of the leather glove, leaving it gripped between my teeth.

Before I had time to wonder what being touched by a fae king would feel like, Jareth pressed his palm against the center of my chest. And it was like he had hooked me up to some thrumming live wire of heat and energy.

I gasped raggedly, my parted lips dropping the glove to the floor as my skin tingled all over. My scalp prickled, the hair on the nape of my neck standing up. My toes curled in my shoes.

_Hnnggg—_

I shuddered and quaked against the wall, whimpering at the mercy of the magic coursing through his body into mine.

He only touched me for a moment, but it felt like much longer. A tiny little eternity of pure sensation. Without a word, he took his hand away from me, making me ache in its absence. But then I realized he only did so to remove his other glove and drop it onto the floor with the other one.

“I feel like your body is being much more honest with me than your mouth is, Sarah,” he said, his voice almost a whisper. His eyes seemed brighter somehow, gleaming like blue stars.

I bit my lower lip with hesitance, feeling terribly torn. One the one hand, I had a mission that I had failed to complete. I was a hunter that had lost my prey. It was pretty fortunate that this failure wasn’t costing me my life, as it had every right and reason to. Perhaps crawling away with my tail between my legs was what this kind of ending deserved?

But on the other hand… WOW. There was this gorgeous, magic king pressed up against me, making it pretty obvious that he was totally in to me and I couldn’t help but feel flattered to the moon and back. My riled libido was screaming at me, almost drowning out the sound of every other thought.

I didn’t want to kill him anymore… not just because of the blessing that was his face, but because things made more sense now that he had explained them to me. And I wasn’t trying to be a killer-for-hire, settling feuds for the rich and powerful. I wanted my hunts to make a positive difference in the world.

This was all turned around and tangled – but staying the night with a lovely man was undoubtedly appealing.

“…Do I have your word that I’m not in any danger spending the night with you?” I asked slowly, glaring at him with the utmost seriousness and sincerity, “Like, I will wake up tomorrow and go back home and be all safe and sound?”

There was a flash in his eyes that happened so fast, I wasn’t sure if I imagined it or not.

“Hmm…” Jareth mused, his expression momentarily thoughtful, “Well, there is the danger that you become addicted to me and have no desire to return home, come morning.”

There was a brief pause after his words, and then I laughed. It started with a snickering in my throat and then grew into loud, breathless laughter.

“ _Good lord_ , you are confident in your abilities!” I said, shaking my head in disbelief and delight.

“I most certainly am,” Jareth replied unapologetically, baring his teeth in a regal yet rebellious smile. He held up the palm of his hand again, and I felt the restraint of the magic slowly melt away. It was only a few seconds and then I was lowered and left to stand unsteadily on my feet.

There was a moment where the two of us stood silent and still, sizing each other up.

“Well, let’s put it to the test…” I said, retracting my sword’s blade and dropping the hilt to the floor.

Sarah Williams never backs down from a challenge. Those would be the words written on my gravestone, without a doubt.

Jareth’s eyes glittered again, a downright devilish smirk curling his lips.

And then his mouth was on mine, magical and searing hot and everything I wanted.

 

\---


	5. Epilogue

\---

 

I awoke slowly, unwillingly, to a familiar buzzing sound.

_It’s your phone… Where did you leave your phone?_

It was in the distance somewhere, like I’d left it on the table across the room or something. There was an edge of impatience to the buzzing that was familiar to me, meaning it was probably Hoggle calling to chew me out for not reporting in earlier.

I groaned and went to get up, trying to use my arms to push up off of the ground, but it didn’t work. The ground was far too soft and plushy to support me, and something warm and strong was wrapped around my waist, holding me down.

Blinking with confusion, I shifted and swept the curtain of my tangled hair out of my way – only to find myself gazing down into the sleeping, satisfied face of the Goblin King who was lying beneath me in the cushion pit where we had spent the night. It was his arms that were holding me close, the magical current from his touch explaining the tingling sensation that was still surging throughout my entire body.

I thought it was my limbs still being heavy with sleep, but it was obviously far too pleasant to be such a commonplace occurrence.

_Oh no…_

Staring down at him with wide eyes, I struggled to stay calm. My body started to relay all kinds of delicious sensory details to my brain now that I was conscious, like the firm smoothness of his chest as it pressed against mine and the way our legs were intertwined so closely. And the fact that my body ached with the night’s exertions, especially below my waist.

I couldn’t help but blush with a mix of embarrassment and erotic delight.

 _How could I let this happen?_ I thought, trying to figure out a way out of our love nest without waking him up. When I tried to shift backward, his arms merely tightened around me.

Well, I _knew how_ I let this happen. Because… _Goddamn. Look at him._ My pride as a professional hunter was hurt, nursing its wounds, but my pride as a woman was practically purring like a cat that found the way into the milk fridge.

Jareth’s eyes were peacefully closed now, but I remembered when they were open and fixed on me, glowing with an unreal radiance in the dark. I remembered the way they had flashed when I rolled us over to be on top. I remembered when they rolled back with pleasure…

Silence rang out for a moment, snapping me out of my reverie and scolding me as to how I missed the call.

But then my phone began to buzz again, and I knew I just had to answer it. Looking around the room, I finally saw the little blinking light of the display screen, half-buried in the pile of my discarded bodysuit out in the middle of the floor. Our clothes were strewn about everywhere. Getting undressed had been quite the frenzy…

_Focus, Sarah!_

I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to the sleepy king lying underneath me.

“Um…Jareth?” I said softly, wanting to wake him up without startling him.

His colored eyelids twitched, and he made a little groaning noise.

_Oh my gods, he’s so cute when he’s sleepy—_

“Jareth,” I tried again, my tone a bit firmer, both for my sake as well as for his.

“Mmm…Ten more minutes, pet…” he murmured, his voice unfairly heated and husky with sleep. I thought there was no way for his voice to get any sexier, but I was wrong. His arms wrapped tighter around me, drawing me back down into the cushions with him. He also grazed my spine with his fingernails, making me shiver in his embrace.

“Jareth, no, my phone’s ringing. I really have to—”

My words cut off in a gasp when he lifted his head and trailed his tongue along the underside of my jaw.

 _Aah…_ My insides were already knotting up and turning to jelly. He did that to me so easily. It wasn’t fair.

Clearing my throat and trying to regain some composure, I physically uncurled his arms from my waist, extricating myself from his embrace and stumbling upon exiting the cushion pit. I pulled a blanket with me, wrapping it around me to shield my body from the chill of the air.

Moving over to grab my phone off the floor brought more bodily aches and strains to my attention.

_Oof…Yeah, I overdid it…_

Though, the thought was less reproachful and more boastful.

Checking the display screen of my cell made me wince.

11 missed calls from Hoggle. Ouch.

Trying to think of something to say, I dialed his number and waited.

The phone didn’t even ring once before he picked up.

“ _Sarah?! Where in the seven hells have you been?_ ” he shouted, making me draw the phone away from my ear a little bit.

“Sorry, Hoggle. Really. I meant to report in sooner but I…got distracted,” I replied, trying to ignore the sultry chuckle that came from the fae king lying in the cushion pit.

_“It’s been hours! You never take this long to call in!”_

“I know…. I’m sorry.”

_“Where are you?”_

“I’m still in the Underground.”

 _“Still?”_ Hoggle gasped, his rage beginning to subside so that I could hear other emotions, like concern and disbelief.

“Yeah. The Goblin King gave me the run-around. But I’m gonna stay here and hunt a little longer until I get him,” I replied, hoping the lie didn’t sound too clunky. I just couldn’t tell my boss that I decided to spend the night with my intended target.

There was some obscure grumbling on the other line, then—

 _“…Well, okay. I know you like to finish your jobs. Bit of a perfectionist, ya are...”_ Hoggle replied, sounded displeased but understanding in the very least.

I couldn’t help but smile at how much he cared and tried to act like he didn’t.

 _“Just be careful, alright?”_ he barked with sudden finality, _“and call in if you need help. I can send Didymus with his rifle.”_

“That’s not necessary just yet, but I’ll let you know. Thank you, Hoggle.”

_“Yeah, yeah…”_

And with that, he hung up. The line disconnected, and I was left with a ringing silence.

I walked back toward the cushion pit with slow steps, biting at my lower lip and trying to figure out if I’d made the right choice last night.

But then I glanced down to see a naked king staring up at me, his pale body languid and relaxed, his blue eyes bright in the dim radiance of dawn streaming in from the nearby window. A new rush of heat rose into my face and my fingers tightened reflexively around my cellphone.

“Well, Sarah?” he murmured, his voice like melted caramel, “Are you going to come down here and finish the job?”

I grinned at his words, setting my phone down on the floor and shedding the blanket I’d wrapped around my shoulders.

Then I joined him in the cushion pit once again, filled with determination and the fullest intent to wipe that smirk right off of his face.

 

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End file.
